Bookbabble - podcast for booklovers everywhere!

We just did the latest episode of Bookbabble, and I mentioned there that I had accidentally finished Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book in a day after making the mistake of peering into the first couple of pages after buying it.  I’ll write up something coherent to post about the book here, I suppose, but as you may already well know, my concept of a schedule is nothing like how it is normally practiced on this planet.  So when I say I will do it soon, I mean to say it’s gonna be between either tomorrow or the day your niece gets married.

So anyway, I was suitably impressed with the book, and wanted to share the love.  I found that Gaiman’s readings of the book (he’s currently on the Graveyard Book Tour, you see) is up at Vimeo.  You may want to pay him a visit there.

Better yet, check out his scheduled appearances here, and see if you can catch him live (you lucky buggers you).

p.s. The episodes are coming.  Really.

Kelly Link has been in my radar for quite a while now.  She is a multiple award-winning author, having bagged Nebulas for her short story collections such as Magic for Beginners and Louise’s Ghost, and the Hugo for The Faery Handbag.  Most importantly, though, is she comes highly recommended by authors such as Jeff Vandermeer, and as some of you may agree, recommendations sometimes rate more highly than any award ever will.

Those of you who would like to sample Kelly Link can now do so for free as her collection of short stories is now released as a Creative Commons licensed download.  Yes, you can download her work for free.  Go here and get it.

Thanks to Boingboing for the heads-up!

This has been going on for a while, but if you’ve not discovered this yet, then it’s better late than never.  The omnipresent Google hosts a series of talks with authors called Authors@Google.  From the Google:

The Authors@Google program brings authors of all stripes to Google for informal talks centering on their recently published books. Through the program, we invite authors to our Mountain View headquarters as well as our New York, Santa Monica, and Ann Arbor offices, where they treat Googlers to readings of everything from serious literature and political analysis to pioneering science fiction and moving personal memoirs; past participants have ranged from novelist Martin Amis and Nobel-prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz to primatologist Jane Goodall and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton.

Apart from the ones already listed above, they also have Salman Rushdie, Noam Chomsky, Henry Kissinger, Greg Bear and many others.

Authors@Google is one of the categories for @GoogleTalks program, which also includes Candidates@Google (US presidential candidates), Women@Google and MarketingTalks@Google, among others.

Fascinating.

This isn’t new, but it’s a fascinating read. NYTimes has an article called Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? that discusses the supposed pros and cons of reading materials online, versus reading physical books. A lot of emphasis is drawn on the comparative reading habits of the younger generation against that of the older generation.

One of the more interesting things that struck me is the apparent popularity amongst teens (in the States, at least) of fan-fiction works based on popular TV shows or movies. So I hopped over to one of the sites mentioned, fanfiction.net, and found a cornucopia of works written by fans, and available for free. The array of works on display was simply astounding (and baffling, I might add, as I don’t recognize most of the titles there). Fan fiction has never appealed to me, but I suppose I can see young people spending their time on worse things.

(Some might argue that the post-Return of the Jedi Star Wars novels are
the most cohesive, organized, popular and lucrative fan fiction novels
ever - I suppose I’d make an exception for Timothy Zahn and his Thrawn
novels).

The article does a fair job in trying to weigh in views from both camps: web proponents, and literacy experts. Interesting read.

Catherynne M. Valente, author of Tiptree Award winning The Orphan’s Tales series of novels, is guest writing on Jeff Vandermeer’s blog. She just put up a piece there on How to Write a Novel in 30 days. A lot of thought-reengineering required, and a lot of emphasis on the two factors which is required for any sort of progress: high levels of stress as a motivation, and putting your reputation up at stake.

I’m kidding. Almost.

Fun read, undoubtedly.

Invaluable if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, for instance, or when you’re joining a short story writing competition :wink:.

Ok, I said I’d let you know. So listen up: tor.com has finally debuted, and it looks really nice, especially for a fantasy geek that I am. From the site:

Tor.com, a site for news and discussion of science fiction, fantasy, and all the things that interest SF and fantasy readers, is an initiative of Tor Books and of the Macmillan group of publishers. It presents original short fiction, new sequential art, extensive art galleries, and commentary on science fiction and related subjects by a wide range of writers from all corners of the science fiction and fantasy field. Its aim is to provoke, encourage, and enable interesting and rewarding conversations with and between its readers.

For months leading up to this moment, tor.com offered up a free ebook every week, in addition to a couple of book cover art as wallpapers. Until July 27, all previously offered books and art are up for grabs, so get your butt over there pronto. Included in the list are new Wheel of Time writer Brandon Sanderson, Daniel Abraham, Kage Baker, John Scalzi and Hugo award winner Robert Charles Wilson.

Vonnegut fans, aspiring writers, readers of interesting articles, this one is for you.  Check out his article entitled How To Write With Style, which is laden with tips that writers will find useful.  I’d say it’ll help the reader in recognizing and appreciating stylistics of the things we read as well.

The thing that sticks out for me is rule no 2: Do not ramble.  We’ll have to work on that in Bookbabble.

I’ve mentioned several times now, either here or elsewhere in forumland, that I’m a regular reader at Slate (in fact, I think I did mention this not too long ago - too lazy to check).

So anyway, I’ve been listening to their Audio Book Club for a while now, and the most recent episode discusses the much beloved classic Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy.

If you’re like me, once you’ve finished a book, I’m really interested in knowing how others have viewed the book, what they thought, and what they felt while reading it.  The trio who discuss the book in this episode does a fair, if a little dry, treatment of the book.

Slate’s Audio Book Club discussions can be a little lopsided with one person dominating the discussion for long periods at times.  Having said that, however, this bears a listen, especially for Anna/Tolstoy fans, just to see if you generally agree with the views expressed.

Other books that have been discussed in the Book Club include:

Beautiful Children, by Charles Bock
All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
Independence Day, by Richard Ford
The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Everyman, by Philip Roth
Saturday, by Ian McEwan
The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

Drop a note and let us know what you think about the discussions on Slate in general.

Neal Stephenson, whom I’ve written about in previous posts here before, author of massive doorstops such as The Baroque Cycle trilogy and a couple of my favs namely Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, gave a talk in Gresham College in London last May, talking about what literary genres are, and their relevance in our day and age.

Many wars have been fought along the lines that supposedly demarcate literary fiction and genre fiction, and whichever side you’re on, this bears a listen.  If you’ve 30 mins to spare.  Which I hope you have (If you can spare an hour listen to us ramble, I’d think you have 30 mins).

Thanks to Boingboing!

(I just realized that quite a lot of my more interesting book-related news is coming from Boingboing… not entirely expected, that)